A Look Back at Benjamin, Lamarque and Locals Thursday, and Picks for Friday at Jazz Fest

The new Festival Stage suites, by Alex Rawls

Thursday gave us a day to look around, but Friday looks good with Jon Batiste, Leyla McCalla, and Oumou Sangaré.

[Updated] What does a Jazz Fest that stars on a Locals Thursday look like? Well, it lacks urgency. There were a lot of people at the Fair Grounds in motion on Thursday, but Widespread Panic and The Beach Boys weren’t the anchors that attracted fans to hang out at the Festival and Shell Gentilly stages. There was a lot of good music, but few must-sees.

It was an easy day to absorb changes. Keith Spera noted that the backstage area for the Festival Stage is tented, presumably to create a more comfortable, private space for The Rolling Stones this time next week. When I got close to the tents though, it looked liket they enclosed the usual dank, uncomfortable trailers that have served as dressing rooms for years. At the back of the Festival Stage, six “luxury” boxes have been erected, and they engendered mixed feelings when I mentioned them on Facebook.

The further commodification of Jazz Fest—The Rolling Stones really, I expect—doesn’t sit well and put some people off, but giving people with money something that doesn’t come at the expense of fans doesn’t bother me much. I hate the rich kid trough in front of the stage that allows fans to buy their way to a spot in front of fans who held their spot on the rail all day, but people who hang out at the opposite end of stage and watch the show on the big screen in their lounge don’t separate the show from motivated fans.

As for shows, the only knock on Lakecia Benjamin’s set in the WWOZ Jazz Tent was that it was underattended. People say they want jazz other than the New Orleans usuals and smooth jazz superstars, but it was too easy to find a seat for a show dyed in the Coltrane wool.

Benjamin’s enthusiasm is a lot, and she introduced her band by excitedly shouting their names into the mic so quickly that we couldn’t hear any of them. She finished each song celebrating like she just ran her personal best 10k, but the playing itself was solid—not testing the boundaries-solid, but that will come—and the verities championed in so much post-bop jazz lived in her set.

“We’re championing women in jazz!” she shouted before launching into a version of “My Favorite Things” dedicated to Alice Coltrane. That wasn’t promising on its face, but the furious start and high octane performance took it decisively out of the holiday season.

Cimafunk’s set at the Festival Stage got a good response but it probably deserved better. The challenge the Afro-Cuban funk band presented to the audience was how to their sound. It’s unquestionably funky, but is funk its own reward? I suppose, the easiest passage to grasp and the one that clearly engaged the audience was an extended take on James Brown. Cimafunk (the band) played a song featuring an updated JB-like riff run through the band’s dense network of influences, then morphed it into something more old school based on Brown’s sound, gestures and style. Cimafunk (the singer) even threw in a few Brown-like dance moves, and in that number, James Brown made it possible to get at least a temporary handle and the band’s funk alchemy.

The most bizarre moment of my day came at the hands of Ronnie Lamarque, who festival producer introduced on the Shell Gentilly Stage, saying, “We only have so many icons, and this is one.” The word “icon” is now on life support and its prognosis isn’t good.

Lamarque sang like a good karaoke singer—confident and able at a basic level, but he didn’t have the vocal personality or power for any song I saw him sing, not Sinatra’s “That’s Life,” not Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” and not even The Stray Cats’ “Rock This Town,” when he didn’t have the chops to embody excitement.

Seger’s song required a steely world-weariness that Lamarque missed entirely, and he was brutally overmatched by Vanilla Fudge’s version of “You Keep Me Hanging On.” The original is cinematically big to start with, and his voice was too small to be distinctive and in some moments heard amid all that sound, particularly with the horns and keyboards playing the melody he sang.

I didn’t expect a lot from Lamarque, but I thought he’d deliver more than that. I assumed his showmanship and patter would stand in as compensatory charms. There too I was wrong. He said little and was casually animated—nowhere near the ham his commercials led me to expect.

Late in his set, I saw a big screen television onstage angled toward Lamarque. I assume it fed him his lyrics, which seemed like the final insult. If he wants a set that hundreds of other New Orleans musicians would like, the least he could do is learn the words to his songs. If he can’t, he shouldn’t have the show.

This review probably makes the show sound like a more entertaining trainwreck than it was. I recognized a number of the musicians onstage, and they were too talented to suck. The songs were all at least serviceable, and Lamarque wasn’t painfully off-key or hacking his way through songs. He made an effort to do a good job, but I don’t think he had a good job in him.

Jon Batiste in the crowd at Jazz Fest 2023, by Alex Rawls

Friday comes with a couple of strong closers in The Killers and Jon Batiste. The Killers played a rare club show at Tipitina’s on Thursday night—I didn’t get in either—and Batiste’s Jazz Fest shows in the last decade have been joyous, creative explorations of what he can do in a festival format. I’ll be there to see what he comes up with.

Who else should be on your radar Friday? I thought you’d never ask.

HaSizzle (12:20 p.m., Congo Square Stage) - “The King of Bounce” is so to the point that he makes Big Freedia sound baroque.

Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. (2:45 p.m., Congo Square Stage) - Harrison’s hip-hop cred is real, but it’s not always on display at his Jazz Fest shows. Since he’ll be joined by THE ICONS featuring rapper Choppa and bounce producer BlaqNmilD, I want to see where this goes.    

Leyla McCalla (Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 12:20 p.m.) - McCalla’s growth as an artist has been exciting to watch. Album concepts that opened musically productive paths for her also gave her cover that she is slowly shedding. Her new Sun Without the Heat feels like her most personal album, but it still has stakes because she thinks about race, class, gender and culture.

Esther Rose (Lagniappe Stage, 3:05 p.m.) - On last year’s Safe to Run, Esther Rose explored staying, going, and the reasons for both. She tests the fences almost reflexively, and the same applies to her version of country, which would probably be Americana if people used that term anymore.

Oumou Sangaré (Congo Square Stage, 4:10 p.m.) - Nigel Williamson’s review of Sangaré’s Timbuktu serves as a good, quick run-through of the singer from Mali’s career.

Earlier in the week, we drew attention to the Colombian acts we are looking forward to this year. On Friday, I plan to see Los Cumbia Stars (3:30 p.m.) and Rancho Aparte (5 p.m.).

Friday at 4:45 p.m., Lafayette’s Rainy Eyes will play the Rhythmpourium Tent. Last year, she contributed a Milky Way to introduce her.

Updated at 10:22 a.m.

We had recommended Balaklava Blues, but since they are no longer on today’s Jazz Fest schedule, the piece has been updated to reflect that change.